Startle to neutral, not negative stimuli: A neurophysiological correlate of behavioral inhibition in young children.

ABSTRACT: A putative biomarker of anxiety risk, the startle response is typically enhanced by negative compared to neutral emotion modulation in adults, but remains understudied in children. To determine the extent to which neutral, negative, and positively valenced emotional conditions modulate startle response in early life, a child-friendly film paradigm was used to vary emotion across these conditions during startle induction in sixty-four 4- to 7-year-old children. Association of emotion-modulated startle with parent-reported anxiety symptom severity and child behavioral inhibition, a risk factor for anxiety problems, were assessed. Analyses revealed no difference in startle magnitude during negative compared to neutral film clips. By contrast, startle during both negative and neutral condition

SUBMITTER: Premo JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8355024 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature